In Her Good Graces: Clans and Company of Grace O'Malley, 1576

In Her Good Graces

Clans and Company of Grace O'Malley, 1576

Once, a girl wanted to sail with her father. She was told that her hair would tangle in the ropes. She chopped off all her hair. She sailed.

Now, a woman wants to sail with her shipping company. She is told by the English that she is a pirate whose lands will be invaded.

We can only imagine what she will do to sail this time.

In 16th century Ireland, individual clans vye for power with one another and with the English, who de jure--but not de facto--rule over the land. The great powers are thirsty for expansion, and fueled by vibrant trade in both the old and new worlds. England is eager to expand control into to the last rebellious section of Ireland. Enter Grace O’Malley: the wealthy chief of the O’Malley clan and the owner of a thriving shipping business, who through marriage and lovers controls much of the west coast of Connacht in Ireland.There will be war on land and sea. Foreign alliances will be forged by trade and broken by blade. A clash of clans can end with marriage--or begin with betrayal. All the while, Grace O’Malley will fight for independence and prosperity in her slice of the Emerald Isle. How much she succeeds will be up to you. At the end of the day, will she sail--or fail?

Katrina Keegan

Chair

Katrina is a second year planning to create her own interdisciplinary regional studies major on the Former Soviet Union and major or minor in creative writing, and yes she is aware that is a mouthful. Katrina spends a lot of her time doing Model UN: competing on the travelling team and staffing both ChoMUN and MUNUC, UChicago’s high school conference. Additionally, she is involved with a trans-Atlantic student think-tank, European Horizons, and does primary source research in UChicago’s Russian department. While she spends the vast majority of her time focused on international things--taking language classes, researching Model UN committees, finding reasons to talk about obscure countries like Moldova and Azerbaijan--she does occasionally remember that she is in Chicago. In these moments she enjoys baking, dancing, and going for long walks with friends. She is very excited to channel a badass Irish pirate queen at ChoMUN XXI and see what Ireland (and the rest of the world) looks like after you are done with it.

Rebecca Cunningham

Crisis Director

Becca is a third year double majoring in History, with a Early Modern European and Imperial focus, and Political Science. After chairing the Women’s Social and Political Union last year at ChoMUN, she is excited to bring another one of the baddest bitches of the British Isles to ChoMUN this year. In other, non-ChoMUN, Model UN spheres, Becca is a Crisis Director of NATO for the University of Chicago’s high school conference MUNUC and because staffing two conferences just isn’t enough to fully sell an individual’s soul to a weird fantasy activity, Becca is also the Vice President of the UChicago Competitive Model UN Team. In a last ditch, but failed, attempt to have activities (and friends) outside of all things Model UN, Becca is on the Women’s Rugby Team for UChicago, where she bruises so easily some (falsely) believe she is a hemophiliac. Becca is incredibly excited to explore exactly how a group of clans and pirates in a small section of Ireland lead by a firebrand can burn the 16th century down.If you have any questions feel free to email rcunnin@uchicago.edu.